Luciano Pavarotti - La Donna È Mobile (Rigoletto) - YouTube Luciano Pavarotti - La Donna È Mobile (Rigoletto) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Oct 24, 2006 The "king" Luciano Pavarotti as Il Duca di Mantova in the screen movie "Rigoletto" (1983) based on Giuseppe Verdi's opera with the same name (1851). La Donna È Mobile - Giuseppe Verdi La donna è mobile Synopsis of Verdi's Rigoletto Rigoletto takes place in northern Italy during the 16th century in the town of Mantua. Rigoletto - ACT 1 Inside a room within the Duke's palace, the Duke is hosting a ball. The Duke is eying and taking delight in the many beautiful women in attendance.

After spotting an exceptionally beautiful girl in the church, one he has never known, he makes it his mission to seduce her. He also seeks companionship with Countess Ceprano, even though she is married. continue reading below our video Top 5 Longest Running TV Shows Rigoletto, the Duke's jester and right hand man, begins to mock and make fun of the men at the ball. He tells the Duke to either imprison or kill them, allowing the Duke the freedom of being with whomever he pleases. Marullo informs the noblemen that Rigoletto has a lover. The noblemen cannot believe that Rigoletto could have a lover, so they turn the table and begin mocking him and devising a plan against him. Count Monterone, an elderly man, interrupts by accusing the Duke of seducing his daughter. The sharp-tongued Rigoletto begins to ridicule him before the Duke orders his arrest. As Count Monterone is escorted out of the ball, he curses both the Duke and Rigoletto. Shaken by the words of Count Monterone, Rigoletto is quite upset as he makes his way home.

He is greeted by an assassin named Sparafucile, and the two men converse. Rigoletto says his words are as sharp as swords, and refuses Sparafucile's assistance. When Rigoletto steps into his house, he is warmly welcomed by his daughter, Gilda. Rigoletto has made her existence secret, even from the Duke. She only leaves the house to go to church and doesn't even know what her father does or his own name. After Rigoletto leaves, Gilda describes a young man she saw in the church to her nurse, Giovanna, and tells her she has fallen for him. She confesses her guilt for not telling her father. Gilda tells Giovanna that she would love the boy even more if here were a poor student. Outside of the house, the Duke overhears the ladies' conversation. He finds a way to separate the two women before making his entrance. The Duke enters the house and startles her. He tells her he is a poor student named Gualtier Maldè and confesses his love to her. Gilda is overjoyed, but quickly sends him away at the sound of approaching footsteps.

The Duke rushes out of the house and Gilda retires to her room. Outside of their garden, instead of Rigoletto returning home, it is the noblemen from the ball. Suspecting the young girl inside to be Rigoletto's lover, they craft a plan to abduct her. The men trick Rigoletto into helping them by telling him that they are abducting Countess Ceprano. Rigoletto excitedly offers his help. They blindfold him and lead him back to his own house. As he holds the ladder, still blindfolded, the men break into Rigoletto's home and kidnap his daughter. As Gilda screams, Rigoletto tears off his blindfold and runs into the house. Finding only her scarf, he remembers Count Monterone's curse. Rigoletto - ACT 2 Inside the palace, the Duke has learned that Gilda has been kidnapped. However, his fears subside when the men who stole her arrive in the palace with Gilda in hand. Strangely excited, he orders the men to lock her in an adjacent room before making his way there.

Rigoletto arrives not long after, happily singing as an attempt to disguise his anguish. The noblemen begin tormenting, laughing, and mocking him. Finally, Rigoletto breaks down and confesses that Gilda is his daughter. The men do not believe him and taunt him for being completely mad. Gilda rushes in to her father's aid and the noblemen finally disperse. She tells Rigoletto of the blessed events that have taken place, and he swears vengeance against the Duke. Gilda, however, pleads for the Duke. Rigoletto - ACT 3 Rigoletto and Gilda travel to the outskirts of town to pay a visit to the assassin, Sparafucile. Before entering the run-down inn, Rigoletto and Gilda overhear the Duke inside flirting with Sprafucile's sister, Maddalena, while singing the famous aria " La donna e mobile " ("All women are fickle"). Rigoletto instructs Gilda to disguise herself in mens clothing and escape to Verona. When she complies, he tells her he will not be far behind. Gilda changes into her disguise and sets out to Verona.

Rigoletto enters the inn and makes a deal with Sparafucile to kill the Duke. During their meeting, a violent storm rolls in and Rigoletto stays there for the night. Gilda returns to the assassin's inn, unable to travel. She hears Maddalena's pleas to spare the Duke's life. Sparafucile agrees to spare his life and will kill the next man to walk through the door in order to dupe Rigoletto. Even though the Duke has proven to be unfaithful, Gilda still loves him. Gilda is resolved to sacrifice her life for his, and walks through the door. She is stabbed immediately. Sparafucile wraps the lifeless body in a bag and gives it to Rigoletto. Rigoletto hands over his payment and happily carries the bag down to the river to dispose of the body. As he approaches the water, he hears the voice of the Duke in the distance. Rigoletto opens the bag and is horrified at the sight. Gilda, with one last breath of life, revives. She tells her father that she gladly dies for her beloved and asks for his forgiveness. Sadly, she passes away in his arms.

Once again, Rigoletto remembers Count Monterone's curse. Famous `Rigoletto' Aria Corny But Catchy - tribunedigital-thecourant Famous `Rigoletto' Aria Corny But Catchy Verdi Aria Classic For The Ages `La Donna' Instant Hit From Rigoletto Opera October 05, 1992|By STEVE METCALF; Courant Music Critic What word could we use to describe "La donna e mobile," the beloved tenor aria in Verdi's opera "Rigoletto"? Corny comes to mind. Let's be candid -- this is not what we could call a lilting, beautiful tune. Nor is it one of those stirring, grab-you-by-the-lapel kind of numbers that Verdi could turn out.

<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\""></script>");document.close();})();' frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="629" height="160"> The best you can say for "La donna e mobile" (lah-donna-ay-MO-bil-lay) is that it's catchy: Yat, tat, tat, DAT da-dee, Yat, tat, tat, DAT da-dee. Given the jaunty dotted rhythm and sing-song melodic contour, it's understandable that writer Roy Blount Jr. has complained that it's easy to confuse "La donna" with "It's Howdy Doody Time." Still, for better or worse, it's become one of the most recognizable numbers in all of opera, a much-performed and much-parodied item, a chestnut. It is, in addition, a classic specimen of the slightly square, oom-pah tenor-in-tights kind of music that gives fuel to those who say that opera is, when you get right down to it, ridiculous. Local listeners will get a chance to make their own judgment this week as Connecticut Opera presents three performances of "Rigoletto," Thursday through Saturday nights at the Bushnell Memorial.

The performances will be given in Italian with English supertitles. "Rigoletto" is one of the monuments of Italian opera, and a work that contains many moments of genuine drama and pathos. "La donna e mobile," which comes in Act IV, occupies only about 2 1/2 minutes of the opera's two-hour length. The aria's reprise is even shorter. Still, the aria has a small and honorable history of its own, a history that was added to as recently as this past summer, when it was used in a TV commercial for Lee bluejeans. In the ad, a smiling, purposeful yuppie guy is seen singing the tune as he briskly towels himself off after stepping out of the shower. He strides down the hall to his bedroom, where he pulls on a pair of jeans, singing all the while. Then, at the moment he zips the zipper and buttons the button, the singing voice suddenly and comically jumps up an octave: The jeans are too tight. "Of course, we switched to a soprano at that point," explains Mike Lescarbeau, a member of the creative team at the ad agency of Fallon McElligott in Minneapolis, which created the spot.

<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\""></script>");document.close();})();' frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="629" height="110"> "How did we decide on `La donna e mobile'? Well, to tell you the truth, we just listened to a bunch of the more -- what would you say? -- cliched pieces from various operas. Somehow that one seemed like the likeliest one that somebody would sing in the shower." Verdi would not have been surprised or offended to hear this. He was a practical man, and he realized, even while he was writing the opera, that "La donna" would be a hit. In fact he was so certain that, during rehearsals for the opera's premiere in 1851, Verdi withheld the tune from the tenor who was to sing it. He finally gave him the music the day before opening night. At that, he made the tenor, as well as all the members of the cast and orchestra, promise that they would not hum or whistle the tune around town. This early media blackout apparently worked: "La donna e mobile" stopped the show.

In the opera, "La donna" is sung by the Duke of Mantua, a man of somewhat underdeveloped sensitivities in the category of gender stereotyping: La donna 0e mobile Qual piuma al vento Muta d'accento E di pensiero" Very roughly: Woman is fickle (or "changeable" if you want it to scan); That feather in the wind, Free of all stresses, And of all worries The aria comes in the fourth and final act of the opera, just before the Duke is about to have an illicit assignation with the fair and trusting Gilda, daughter of the hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto, at a remote inn. The roguish lyrics confirm that the Duke is a cad. More important, the bouncing melody becomes the Duke's instantly recognizable signature song, which will be significant when the tune briefly reappears. "La donna" is not really much of a vocal showpiece, except for the high-B natural with which most tenors end the piece. As it happens, that note doesn't appear in the score. Verdi instead called for the ditty to end more modestly on the B-natural an octave below.

But most modern tenors, defying the scholars who frown on such liberties, opt for the crowd-pleasing high note. The reprise of the aria occurs near the end of the opera. Here the very banality of the tune contributes to the drama of the moment. Rigoletto has arranged for a professional killer to murder the Duke for deflowering his daughter. But just as Rigoletto comes upon the sack that he believes to contain the Duke's body, he suddenly hears the Duke, quite alive, singing "La donna" from within the inn. Horrified, he tears open to sack to find his dying daughter, who has knowingly allowed herself to be killed by the hit man in order to spare the life of the Duke.

"When Rigoletto hears the Duke singing that reprise, it's one of the few times in all of opera where singing is actually a part <script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\""></script>");document.close();})();' frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="629" height="110"> La donna e mobile | Rigoletto | Giuseppe Verdi | Opera-Arias.com Opera Arias Home > Verdi > Rigoletto > La donna e mobile La donna e mobile No youtube found that exactly matches aria, opera and composer. Libretto/Lyrics/Text: La donna ï¿½ mobile Qual piuma al vento, In pianto o in riso ï¿½ menzognero. Non liba amore! La donna ï¿½ mobile, ecc. Sparafucile rientra con una bottiglia di vino e due bicchieri che depone sulla tavola: quindi batte col pomo della sua lunga spada due colpi al soffitto. A quel segnale una ridente giovane, in costume di zingara, scende a salti la scala.

Il Duca corre per abbracciarla, ma ella gli sfugge. Frattanto Sparafucile, uscito sulla via, dice a parte a Rigoletto: SPARAFUCILE ï¿½ lï¿½ il vostr'uomo ï¿½viver dee o morire? RIGOLETTO Piï¿½ tardi tornerï¿½ l'opra a compire. Sparafucile s'allontana dietro la casa verso il fiume. English Libretto or Translation: as feathers in the wind, simple in speech, the face is false for sure. If you rely on her you will regret it, and if you trust her you are undone! Yet none can call himself fully contented love in her arms! Women are as fickle, etc. Sparafucile returns with a bottle of wine and two glasses, which he puts on the table; then he strikes the ceiling twice with the pommel of his sword. At this signal, a buxom young woman in gypsy costume comes jumping down the stairs. The Duke runs to kiss her, but she eludes him.

Meanwhile, Sparafucile, having slipped out into the road, speaks softly to Rigoletto: SPARAFUCILE Your man's in there. Is he to live or die? RIGOLETTO I'll come back later to conclude our business. Sparafucile moves off behind the house in the direction of the river.

Rigoletto – Verdi Log out Rigoletto – Verdi Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Fabio Luisi – Juan Diego Flórez (Il Duca di Mantova), Zeljko Lucic (Rigoletto), Diana Damrau (Gilda) – Semperoper Dresden Embed this video <iframe src="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><p><a href="/#!/rigoletto-dresden-juan-diego-florez-diana-damrau">Verdi: Rigoletto – Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Fabio Luisi – Juan Diego Flórez – Semperoper Dresden</a> on <a href="">medici.tv</a>.</p> One of the world's leading stage directors, Nikolaus Lehnhoff (1939-2015) will always be remembered for his outstanding work on many operas, and notably for this spectacular production of Giuseppe Verdi's popular opera Rigoletto, here showcased at the Dresden Semperoper.

The version released here stars two internationally-acclaimed singers, tenor Juan Diego Flórez and soprano Diana Damrau. Rigoletto (1851) is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Writting the libretto took time because the Austrian censors judged the opera immoral. On the other hand, its composition took only forty days. The staging of Nikolaus Lehnhoff is exceptional. The distribution combines incomparable voices to intense stage presence. Serbian baritone Željko Lučić interprets Rigoletto, Juan Diego Flórez is the seductive Duca di Mantova and Diana Damrau is Gilda. The most popular arias "Cortigiani vil razza dannata" and "La donna è mobile" are beautifully sung by these interprets. As head of the Staatskapelle Dresden, the conductor Fabio Luisi enhances Rigoletto's score. Argument: The argument of Rigoletto deals with the amatory escapades of the Duca di Mantova.

Rigoletto, his jester, is a hunchback. He has made many enemies at court by his unscrupulous conduct. Count Monterone, who comes to the court to demand the restoration of his daughter, who has been dishonoured by the Duke, is met by the jester with laughter and derision. The Count curses Rigoletto, who is stricken with superstitious terror. Nikolaus Lehnhoff stage director Rigoletto La Dona e mobile - YouTube Rigoletto La Dona e mobile Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Apr 11, 2006 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's classic film of Verdi's dark tragedy features the legendary Luciano Pavarotti as the dashing Duke of Mantua Category Rigoletto | The Opera 101 The Opera 101 Fill out the fields below to contact us!

Your name * Recordings About One of the most exciting and gritty operas, Rigoletto is not for the faint-hearted. The censors of the time had real issues with Rigoletto’s content and it’s not really hard to see why! Set in the grubby world of the Duke of Mantua, a man with few morals and a great deal of power, the action plumbs the depths of nastiness and the bad guy doesn't get a comeuppance. There’s no avoiding the opera’s grim finale either, horrifically sad with only limited redemption. Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House Rigoletto is the first of Verdi’s middle period operas and marks a shift towards coherent musical tapestries as opposed to the typical Italian aria format (though Verdi by no means leaves the form behind). There are fewer applause breaks than in his earlier works, the drama seemingly rushing headlong towards its conclusion. It's an opera with extremes but also a sense of moral ambiguity. The grim palace of the Duke is contrasted by the tranquility and isolation of Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter.

Gilda gets some of the most divine music, particularly in the Act I aria Caro nome, in English Sweet name. Verdi also cleverly gives the despicable Duke some devilishly charming music, you’ll probably recognise La donna è mobile, Woman is flighty. Rigoletto himself gets no flashy arias, his music is punchier and more declamatory, an uneasy mix of both worlds. With a fantastic balance between the grand and the intimate, from plush palace to rundown inn, Rigoletto is an opera that has it all. Characters A ruthless assassin, albeit one with some sense of honour. Synopsis Act I - Running Time: 65 mins A palace ball is in full flow. The Duke of Mantua sings of his lascivious life. Amongst his many potential future conquests he is eyeing up an unknown girl he caught sight of in church. Rigoletto mocks all and sundry, a court jester who does this job in a nasty, deeply unpopular manner. The various nobles gossip about Rigoletto’s “lover”, most don’t believe she exists but they resolve somehow to have their revenge on him.

Count Monterone enters angry, decrying that the Duke has had his way with Monterone’s daughter. Rigoletto ridicules him and the Duke orders him to be arrested. As he is dragged out Monterone calls down a curse on Rigoletto and the Duke. Rigoletto is cursed, Metropolitan Opera Sparafucile and Rigoletto, Metropolitan Opera Rigoletto trudges home worried by the curse. He comes across Sparafucile, the local assassin (every town should have one!), skulking in the darkness. Sparafucile offers his services but Rigoletto rejects his offer saying he has no need of them. Rigoletto enters his home where he is greeted by his daughter, Gilda. She is the figure that the noblemen suspect to be his lover. Rigoletto has kept Gilda secret from the Duke and Gilda does not know about Rigoletto’s job at the palace. The only place Gilda is allowed to go is church and she has recently fallen in love with a young man. As soon as Rigoletto leaves that man promptly appears and would you believe it... it’s the Duke!

He bribes Giovanna into letting him in and in the ensuing love song lies to Gilda, telling her that he is a poor student. He departs. Outside the house, the noblemen mass to abduct Gilda, who they still think is Rigoletto’s lover. Somehow in the darkness they trick Rigoletto into believing they are kidnapping a woman from the house adjacent to his and in the ensuing action Rigoletto actually assists in the kidnapping of his daughter. The noblemen gather outside Rigoletto's house, San Francisco Opera He realizes what has happened and is utterly distraught. He recalls the curse as the curtain descends. Act II - Running Time: 35 mins We’re back in the palace. The Duke is missing his Gilda but he is soon excited to hear that the noblemen have just kidnapped her. She is in his bedroom which is like Christmas come early for the Duke. He dashes off as Rigoletto enters trying to appear like nothing is wrong. He tries to find out what has happened to Gilda without giving much away but soon breaks down and desperately demands her return. Predictably he doesn’t have much luck and the noblemen forcibly prevent him entering the Duke’s chambers.

Rigoletto (Zeljko Lucic) demands to see his daughter © Matthias Creutziger/Semperoper Dresden Gilda emerges dishevelled. As she describes what has happened to her, Rigoletto gets very angry indeed. Monterone happens to be being dragged through and curses the fact that his curse has not come to pass. Rigoletto shouts after him that he is wrong and swears vengeance on the Duke, though Gilda continues to defend the Duke as she is still in love... Act III - Running Time: 35 mins We find ourselves at the home of Sparafucile (the assassin from Act I). While we have been away supping interval drinks, Rigoletto has arranged for Sparafucile to kill the Duke and present the body in a sack for Rigoletto to dispose of himself in the river. Sparafucile has used his sister, Maddalena to lure the Duke to his home. At the same time Rigoletto has brought Gilda to the house to try to convince her of the Duke’s infidelity.

The Duke sings the famous aria, “La donna e mobile”, and despite overhearing everything Gilda remains in love and Rigoletto sends her away to prepare (by dressing as a boy!) for their escape to Verona. Placido Domingo sings "La Donna e Mobile" The Duke goes to bed. Gilda comes creeping back to overhear Maddalena trying to convince Sparafucile not to kill the Duke. Sparafucile agrees to kill anyone who comes to his door before midnight, if no one comes the Duke will die. Gilda, still deeply in love, resolves to sacrifice herself. She knocks on the door and is stabbed by Sparafucile. Rigoletto returns and is given the sack by Sparafucile. He gloats over what he believes is the body of the Duke. The Duke, still safely alive, is overheard singing. In a panic Rigoletto cuts open the sack to find his beloved daughter inside! With her dying breath Gilda begs for forgiveness. Monterone’s curse has come to pass!

Rigoletto (Zeljko Lucic) mourns the death of Gilda (Diana Damrau) © Ken Howard/Met Opera Major Arias Tutte le feste al tempio Gilda History Commissioned in April 1850 by La Fenice in Venice, Verdi set about finding a suitable subject for his new opera. He chose as his Librettist Francesco Marie Piave with whom he had worked on five previous operas and after a serious search, Verdi decided upon Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse, a subject that was always likely to cause problems with the censors (the play itself had a checkered history with censorship). Sure enough, Verdi was asked to submit the libretto to the Austrian censors (Venice a constituent state of Austria at the time) who took exception to the portrayal of an evil monarch and to compound this an evil character whose evildoing is not punished at the opera’s conclusion.

Italy in 1843, a divided nation with Austria controlling the north Verdi had no intention of making substantial changes and for a time it looked like Rigoletto, or “La Maledizione” (The Curse) as it then was, would never reach the stage. This wasn’t really good for anyone, including La Fenice who, having paid Verdi, needed an opera. As luck would have it, one of the Austrian censors, Luigi Martello, was a Verdi fan and it was he who suggested shifting the action from the French King to a fictional Mantuan Duke. It was at this stage that Rigoletto gained its name with the hunchback jester Triboulet becoming Rigoletto, a name taken from the title of another Hugo play, Rigoletti, ou Le dernier des fous. Rigolo meaning funny in French! Verdi was sufficiently happy with the results that he set to work, writing the bulk of the score in 40 days. The premiere was a huge success and Rigoletto has never been far from the operatic stage since.

Costume designs for the original production in Venice 1851 Fun Facts Le Roi s'amuse Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse, premiered in November 1832, was on the surface simply historical fiction about Francis I. He was the king of France for most of the first half of the 16th Century, now long dead. The play was taken by the French government however, (quite accurately) as little more than a thinly veiled attack on the current King: Louis Philippe. Louis had come to the throne only two years earlier and after many years of political unrest the Government was extremely twitchy about perceived criticism. The play was swiftly banned. This particularly offended Hugo as censorship had supposedly been eliminated only two years previous. In the end the censorship didn’t work. The printed text became wildly popular. By the time Verdi would come to write Rigoletto, Louis had been deposed and died though Hugo was in no better state having been exiled from France by Napoleon III. Which Duke? Vincenzo Gonzaga Though Rigoletto was originally based on French kings, Verdi was not without an historical model for dirty Mantuan Dukes.

There are a few possible candidates almost all of whom belong to the Gonzaga family. Most likely is Vincenzo Gonzaga who was Duke of Mantua from 1562-1612. His father was a frugal, puritanical hunchback but Vincenzo took a different path, spending vast sums of money on wine, horses and music. His patronage of Claudio Monteverdi should endear him to any opera lover but his handling of the Mantuan court make comparisons with Rigoletto’s Duke not unfair. La Donne e Mobile Verdi was convinced he had written a modern, dramatic work (as we’d probably now all agree) and was not at all impressed when the husband of Teresa De Giuli-Borsi, who was to sing Gilda, asked for an extra aria to be inserted for her. Verdi proclaimed “My intention was that Rigoletto should be one long series of duets, without arias and finales”. That said, he wasn’t blind to how Rigoletto might well be received and was acutely aware that he had written something of a humdinger in the form of “La Donne e Mobile”.

The legend goes, that to avoid the tune becoming common property to all of Venice, he swore his singers to secrecy and wouldn’t provide the music for the song until mere days before the first performance. Francesco Piave Francesco Piave Librettists have never really gotten their due in the operatic world but Francesco Maria Piave was a significant part of Verdi’s career. He wrote 10 libretti for Verdi starting with Ernani and including many of his greatest works including La Traviata and Simon Boccanegra. Amongst his many skills were his abilities as a negotiator, a talent he was repeatedly forced to use with both Verdi and the various European censors. Verdi could be harsh with him, he gave him hell when the first version of Rigoletto was blocked, but they formed a strong bond over many years and after Piave suffered a stroke in 1867 Verdi supported his wife and daughter as well as paying for his funeral when he died in 1876.

Popularity English Libretto from the Royal Opera's premiere production Rigoletto was astonishingly popular from its premiere in 1851, reaching London by 1853 (The English libretto sold at Covent Garden on the right) and New York by 1855. Censorship continued to be a problem albeit a minor one especially in France where Hugo was immensely displeased that his original play was still banned whilst Verdi’s work could, and regularly was, performed. Popularity-wise not much has changed over the intervening 150 years and Rigoletto was the 9th most performed opera in the world from 2007/2008 to 2011/2012. In Brief Date of premiere March 11, 1851 Number of Acts 3 The Music of Rigoletto From the beginning of his musical career, Giuseppe Verdi tried to develop opera beyond the structures, rules and dramatic traditions that had bound it for so long. But he had to be careful about any experimentation: opera audiences were notoriously conservative and came to the theatre expecting certain conventions, certain ways of communicating sung drama.

A scena or 'scene' had to be built in a certain way, an aria had to have a specific form, heroines were almost always lyric or coloratura sopranos, villains' roles were always performed by basses, heroes were always tenors, etc. One flaunted or experimented with these conventions only at great risk to one's career in the theatre since the audience could always be counted on to 'vote with it's feet' and repay the upstart composer by staying away from his operas. Verdi's early operas, then, were very much in the mold of the Italian bel canto school at least in terms of sheer structure. Musically speaking even early critics of the composer could tell that this composer was something apart from the standard lyrical output of his contemporaries. But as early as Ernani (1844) he began to experiment with the use of the baritone voice-type (a voice-type not generally recognized up to this point in Italian opera) to communicate a character with far more complex motives than the usual bass-villain, a character far more dynamic and dramatically mercurial than audiences were used to seeing onstage.

As the years and the operas went by, Verdi's baritone characters became more interesting, more real; in a word, more human, paralleling Verdi's consistent attempt to make opera itself less artificial and more naturalistic. Along with the development of the baritone came the development of a musical style that was more natural as well, necessitating a move away from the ossified forms and conservative structures of the past. This development was more or less applied to all elements of the opera including all voice-types (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and bass) by the composer, depending entirely on the specific dramatic demands of the libretto. And the greatest amount of experimentation in musical characterization can be found in the brilliant middle-period operas La traviata, Il trovatore and Rigoletto, and it is in the latter that we see (and hear!) some exciting new developments. After the atmospheric prelude or short musical introduction to the opera (does any other composer do so much to establish an emotional environment with so few notes?), we hear party music  dance music that is seemingly banal and lacking in subtlety.

It could not be more different from the music of the prelude and is almost shocking in its context. And it is certainly not what a mid-nineteenth century audience member should have expected at the beginning of a tragic opera. But Verdi's intention is crystal-clear: he wants us to immediately realize the salacious and libidinous nature of the Duke's court with music as raw and unrefined as the court and its ruler. Rather than have the singers act out the intended seediness (something that would have been impossible in Verdi's day), the composer leads the audience's imagination into creating the appropriate atmosphere by composing music highly suggestive of an amoral gathering of aristocratic party-goers. Overlaying this realistic party music are the first utterances of the singers, a ribald conversation between the Duke and Borsa, one of his courtiers, about the Duke's latest conquests. This kind of conversation would normally have been treated (certainly by any number of other Italian composers of Verdi's time) by more traditional recitative. But Verdi couches the conversation in the context of stage music accompanied, under normal circumstances, by a small band of instrumentalists in the wings or behind the scenery.

In this way the composer gives the impression of a real party going on in real time before our very eyes. Verdi's nineteenth century audience, then, became part of the scene and was brought much closer to the stage events. And what better way to create a sense of ducal moral decay than to create music that one could characterize as being as tacky as the court itself? The transition from the dance music to the first number accompanied by the pit orchestra occurs seamlessly as the violins enter in leaping octaves at the start of Questa o quella, the tenor's first aria. These first three or four minutes of Rigoletto may not seem so unusual to us now, predisposed as we are to hear this familiar music after some 150 years of acquaintance with it. But compare it with some of the more sublime moments from this score (the Rigoletto/Gilda duet from Act II or the famous Act IV quartet, Bella figlia) and we get the point rather quickly: this score is far from uneven, Verdi is simply casting his music to perfectly fit the dramatic situation. Let's go a bit farther in trying to understand Verdi's musical characterization.

Notice that the tenor's solo music is almost all of an assertive, blatantly tuneful nature. Questa o quella, Parmi veder le lagrime and La donna è mobile are all carefully calculated to communicate the character of the Duke, whom we know to be a shallow, vain man whose main interest is not so much involved with statecraft as it is in plotting his next amorous conquest. We also know that his Renaissance court is absolutist; he is a dictator entrenched in the old monarchical system whose courtiers and subjects are under his complete and direct authority. These kinds of political systems are, by nature, highly conservative. It should not surprise us that, although Rigoletto is a very experimental opera for Verdi, there are older, more traditional operatic forms still present: they are to be found in the music of the Duke, or in music with which he is involved. The Duke has, for instance, the only double-aria (Act II's Parmi veder le lagrime being the slow cavatina, and Possente amor the requisite cabaletta) and the only strophic arias (Questa o quella and La donna è mobile) in the entire score.

The Duke's duet with Gilda in Act I is also much more reflective of older operatic treatment, with its slow movement (È il sol dell'anima) and consequent cabaletta-like fast movement (Addio, addio, speranza ed anima). But the real experiment operatically, dramatically and musically is to be found in the character of Rigoletto himself. The jester at the center of Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse was just the complicated, unusual and grotesque character that Verdi was looking for at the time. With a character produced from a fermentation of distrust, trickery, paranoia and paternal love, Verdi had a creation ripe for the new kind of opera that he desired above all to create. One only need listen to Rigoletto's Act I monologue "Pari siamo" to realize that we are in a completely revolutionary operatic world. It is not of the ordered, contained world of the traditional aria, and yet it is not strictly recitative either. Verdi has created a hybrid form, closely akin to the Shakespeare soliloquy in traditional theatre, which gives the character of Rigoletto ample dramatic space to communicate the emotions roiling within him.

Notice there is no 'tune' in Pari siamo. We have instead musical gestures, short powerful motives that stop, start, trail off and sometimes (but only sometimes!) sing, acting in real time much the same way the human mind acts in real life. Verdi hinted at this kind of revolutionary musical structure in his early Shakespeare opera, Macbeth, but in this present piece he surpasses all other creations before it. To the mind of a typical nineteenth century aficionado, Rigoletto's first solo utterance must have seemed very strange indeed, as he would surely have expected at this moment a double-aria or even a pure recitative leading us into the duet with his daughter. Rigoletto's character is treated similarly throughout the entire work. Consequently, with all his flaws, he comes across as one of the most human characters in all nineteenth century Italian opera.

Question: ‘La donna è mobile’ comes from which Verdi opera?
Answer: RIGOLETTO